Ryan cleared his throat. “So why do they include summoners in this honor system?”

Tessa turned her attention to him. “Because even though it is an affront to them to be summoned, they can gain status by their knowledge of other spheres or with artifacts that we offer to them for their cooperation. Without the protection that their honor affords us as summoners, no human would ever attempt to summon a demon.” She snapped her eyes back to me. “And if someone were to call a lord outside of the normal protocols—”

“I have no intention of calling him!” I practically yelled. I started to say more, but the ringing of my cell phone interrupted me. Probably a good thing, since the more I had to say would not have been nice.

Ryan stared at me as I pulled my phone out to see who was calling at this late hour. “You have the Fraggle Rock theme song as your ring tone,” he said, with a bemused look on his face. “You are so weird.”

I laughed, then hit the answer button on my phone. “Detective Gillian here.”

There was silence for a couple of seconds, then a small cough, and a thin voice said, “H-hello? Is this the ladyc-cop who was speaking to T-tio?”

I straightened. “Yes, yes, it is. Who is this?”

Another brief silence. Then, “I go by Belle. Tio s-said I needed to t-talk to you. Showed me some p-pics.”

My excitement rose. I gestured wildly at Ryan and pointed first at the phone, then at the pics that I’d scrawled names on. “Yes, yes,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm as I flipped through the pages. “I’ve been showing some pictures around.” Ryan moved over to me and leaned in to try to hear. I yanked out a page that had Belle written on it and waved it at him triumphantly.

“Yeah. Oh, m-man. Tio said that it was f-fucked up and that I was g-gonna get killed, and now I think someone’s following me.” The girl’s voice wavered badly, thick with terror.

“I won’t let that happen,” I said gently as I looked at the picture. Holy shit, but she didn’t look much older than fifteen—a smiling black girl with a pert nose and slanted eyes, with piercings in her eyebrow and lower lip. “Where are you?”

“S-somewhere safe. I think.”

“Where?” I asked. “I can keep you a lot safer than you can be out there on the streets. Can I meet you someplace?”

Another silence, and this time I had to check my phone to make sure that the girl had not hung up on me. “Belle? I’m worried about you. Please tell me where I can meet you, so I can make sure you stay safe.”

“All right. I–I c-can meet you by the diner on Vaughn Street.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes, Belle. I’m driving a dark-green Ford Taurus. Stay out of sight until you see my car, okay?”

“Ok-kay.”

“And call me or call 911 if you see anything strange or unusual.”

“Okay. Y-you’re coming right now?”

“I’m leaving right now. Yes.”

The silence this time actually was the girl disconnecting. I stuffed my phone in my pocket and snatched up my jacket. “Come on, Fed Boy,” I commanded as I dashed for the back door. “Time for you to earn your tax dollars.”

Chapter 19

I drove fast, ignoring the way that Ryan clutched at the door handle as I took the corners. After the sixth time his foot came down on the floorboards, though, I snapped, “The brakes over there don’t work!”

Ryan made a mock-panicked sound. “God help us all, Kara! We do have to get there in one piece, you know.”

I tightened my grip on the wheel. “Do you have any idea how amazing it is that this girl called me? I can’t run the risk that she’ll get scared or get tired of waiting for us and leave. There’s too much that she can tell us!”

Ryan scowled. “I know. I have been in law enforcement for a while.”

“Yeah, but were you ever a regular cop, or have you always been a Fed?” I winced, regretting the words as soon as they left my mouth.

“What difference does it make?” His reply had some heat behind it.

I grimaced. “I’m sorry. It’s just that so much of what I do is dealing with this underlayer of society. How much experience with that do you guys get?”

“I’ve been with the agency for ten years now. I worked in social services before that for four.” His tone was clipped. “I know how to talk to regular folk.”

“Good. That means you can understand why I want to get there as fast as I can.” I whipped the car around a curve, skidding to the side in a maneuver that unnerved even me, then straightened it out at the last second to avoid slamming into the curb. My pitiful Taurus shuddered as it found traction again, reminding me that it was not a performance vehicle.

He let out a sound that was close to a growl. “If we get into a wreck, we won’t get there at all.”

“Fine!” I said, slowing down a bit though not wanting to admit that he might be right. But I knew I was being a jerk. I was getting too caught up in the excitement of it, and I was being careless. Now was not the time to get hurt in a stupid way. Plenty of time later to get hurt in non-stupid ways.

Vaughn Street was about half a mile away from the outreach center, though the general quality of the neighborhood was the same. I’d come through here the night after speaking with Tio, handing out pictures and doing my best to encourage people who shunned the police to help me with my investigation.

There was no one in front of the diner when we pulled up—not a huge surprise since it was after three in the morning. Even the drug addicts and prostitutes usually found a place to sleep by this hour. I got out of the car, scanning the area, listening for any sign of others. The stores were all closed and dark, and even the diner was silent, with a hand-lettered sign in the window that announced that they opened at six a.m. The waxing moon reflected off the store windows in mute reminder of how much time we had left to find the killer.

Ryan exited the car, closing his door softly, as did I. “We might be early,” he said, voice low.

“Or she might be watching us from somewhere,” I said, scanning. “I told her to stay out of sight until she saw us.” The back of my neck prickled. Someone was definitely watching us. My intuition told me that much. The whisper of arcane brushed me again, and goose bumps sprang up on my skin.

“Something’s wrong,” I whispered. Ryan looked at me, frowning. I eased my gun from my holster, pulse beginning to quicken. Every small sound or scrape seemed preternaturally loud. Out of my peripheral vision I could see Ryan pulling his gun as well.

“I feel it too,” he said, voice almost too low to hear.

The piercing shriek from above gave me barely enough warning to throw myself to the side.

“Ryan! Demon! Take cover,” I managed to yell, even as leathery wings buffeted me, knocking me sprawling. I kept hold of my gun, though, and rolled quickly to my back as I tried to see where the creature had gone. It was a demon, that much I knew, but there’d been no chance to see what manner of demon I was up against. A higher demon wouldn’t have given itself away, I thought frantically. But it had wings, so it had to be at least seventh level. With any luck it was merely a kehza.

Merely. Ha. I couldn’t see a damn thing, nor could I hear the beating of wings, though I knew that the creature was strong and fast and, if it was diving, there was no guarantee I would get a warning the next time. I scrabbled back toward the doorway of the diner, wanting something solid at my back. I swore under my breath. Heavy metal gates across the glass front doors barred any hope of escape in that direction. But at least I was in a slight alcove, which meant that the demon couldn’t dive down on me. Unfortunately, I was also cornered.

“Ryan!” I called. “Are you all right?”

I heard him curse, then he came around the side of the alley and sprinted to me, crouched low, gun in his hand and eyes wide. But, to his credit, he didn’t look panicked. He just looked like a man who had believed in something for a long time but had finally been presented with unavoidable evidence that it was real, whether he wanted it to be or not.

He reached the alcove and huddled up in the sparse cover, scanning the area. “I’m all right. Where is it?”

“I can’t tell. I’m hoping it’s a kehza, a seventh-level demon.”

“Are they easier to kill?”

I gave a humorless laugh. “Sure, the way Everest is easier to climb than K2. All demons are incredibly fast and deadly, but if it was a twelfth-level we’d have serious problems.”

Ryan opened his mouth to speak again, but an inhuman shriek interrupted him. The demon suddenly dropped down in front of us, snarling around a mouthful of jagged teeth and grabbing at us with clawed hands. I let out a startled yelp and fired twice. The demon shifted with a speed that was otherworldly, somehow evading the projectiles, then leaped back into the air, leaving behind a sour-sweet smell like rotting flowers.

I gasped for breath in the sudden silence, the sound echoed by Ryan as we both hurriedly checked ourselves for injuries. Though not as large as an eleventh- or twelfth-level demon, a kehza was still plenty dangerous—about the size and build of a human, with a face that bore an uncanny resemblance to a Chinese dragon, skin of iridescent red and purple, and plenty of sharp teeth and claws.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Ryan breathed. “I’ve never seen anything move that fast.”

“They’re fast,” I agreed, though I’d never realized they were that fast. It had fucking dodged a bullet! “But I was right. It’s a kehza.”

He slid a narrow-eyed glance to me. “And this information helps us how?”

“Oh, it doesn’t. I think the only way we’re going to wound it is if it gets distracted and one of us is able to shoot it.”

Ryan frowned. “How many shots will it take to kill something like that? Where’s the best place to aim?”

“Well, you won’t be able to kill it,” I said, still scanning anxiously. “It’s not from this plane, so if you deal it a mortal injury, it’ll return to its own plane and re-form there. It … discorporeates.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Is that really a word?”

I gave a bark of laughter. “It is now. Basically you’re just doing a really harsh dismissal ritual.”

“Well, sending it back to its own plane is good enough for me.” Ryan scowled, scanning the skies. “Otherwise, it looks like we’re trapped here until it decides it’s tired of playing with us.”

I shifted my grip on my gun. “Shit. I can’t figure out what it’s doing. If it really wanted to kill us, we’d be dead.”

“Well, I’m not going to just sit here.” He looked longingly over at my car, which sat so invitingly a mere fifty feet away. It might as well have been a mile. “No chance we can make it to the car, huh?”

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “Go for it, tough guy.”

“Well, you did say that one of us needed to distract it.” He smiled without humor.

I scowled at him. He had no idea what we were up against. “No, I said that it needed to be distracted. Not necessarily by one of us.”

He continued to scan the area. “Do you see anyone else here wanting to help?”

My scowl deepened. “You don’t realize how fast these creatures can be.” I rubbed my eyes with my free hand. “This is stupid. You’re right, we can’t afford to be stuck in here. We don’t know if Belle is anywhere near here either.”

“Yeah, I have a bad feeling about that,” he murmured, expression dark.

I let out a shuddering breath. Had the demon already taken her? Then what was it doing attacking us? But it easily could have killed us by now, so maybe it’s just stalling us. I didn’t have any answers. I only knew that I was blowing it again and another victim was going to die. “Cover me,” I said, and before Ryan could form a protest, I took off running toward the car.

I heard the whoosh of air and I dove to the side, not thinking about tactics, just hoping that random evasion would work the best. Wings slammed at me and I went rolling, seeing teeth and claws as a line of fire seared my shoulder. A clawed hand seized my wrist in a grip of iron, then abruptly released me, sending me sprawling. My gun went flying from my hand as I tucked, but I heard gunshots anyway.

An agonized bellow erupted above me. I rolled, scrambling to get my back against the car as I saw the demon hit the ground in a crumpled heap, bright white light streaming from two places in its chest. It shrieked again, pushing up from the ground as the light spread and widened, then it collapsed, the shriek dying into an almost piteous whine.

I pulled myself to my feet and the demon lifted its head shakily, locking eyes with mine.

“Sssummoner,” it said in a weird, hissing croon, then the light flared to blinding levels and I heard the earsplitting crack of a dismissal. When I could see again, the demon was gone, with just the smell of rotting flowers and ozone lingering.

I looked up to see Ryan running toward me, his face a mask of fury. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he yelled, grabbing me by the shoulders and giving me a shake. Then he released me so suddenly I almost fell. “Christ, you’re hurt!” he exclaimed, looking down at blood on his hand.

I blinked at the sudden change from furious to solicitous. As if his words were a switch, my shoulder started to hurt. “Crap. Yeah.” I sighed and craned my head to look at my upper back by my shoulder. “I don’t think it’s bad, though.”

“It’s going to need stitches.” Ryan scowled blackly. “What the fuck was that stunt? That’s not what partners do!”